Royal Ordinance settling the Succession to the Crown on Prince Christian of Glücksburg

(Translation.)

31 July 1853.

We, by the Grace of God, King of Denmark, of the Wenns and
the Goths, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsh,
Lauenburg, and Oldenburg;

Make known,

By our ancestors on the throne, it has been considered a
fundamental principle of the Government, that the countries
which are subject to the Danish sceptre must not be disunited
or separated from each other. In accordance therewith, our well-
beloved father, His Majesty the late King Christian VIII, of
glorious memory, when he found himself constrained to make some
declaration respecting the state of the Succession to the Danish
Monarchy, gave to all his faithful subjects, in the Letter-Patent of
8 July 1846,* signed by us as Crown Prince at that time, the
assurance that his constant efforts had been and should be directed
to cause the integrity of the Danish Monarchy to be fully recognized
so that the different parts of the country united under his sceptre
should never be separated.

During the convulsions which, soon after Divine Providence had
called us to the throne of our ancestors, threatened in several
European States to overthrow the foundation of civil Society, and which
subsequently, penetrating within the boundaries of our Monarchy,
placed its integrity in the greatest danger, we trust that we maintained
it with unshaken constancy, as an object, the attainment and
preservation of which had been transmitted to us by our ancestors on
the throne, as the chief aim of the Government of the Danish King.

But as the perpetual maintenance of the Monarchy depends upon
one common Succession Law for all its parts, and as the efforts of
our late beloved father and our own to enlarge the Succession valid
in our Kingdom of Denmark, in our Duchy of Schleswig, indissolubly
united with the Danish Crown, and also undoubtedly so in other
parts of the Monarchy; and to cause to be recognized as binding on
the whole Monarchy the female Succession established by the Royal
Law for the eventuality, in which, by the inscrutable will of
Providence, the male line of the late King Frederik III, now reigning
over the whole Monarchy, should become extinct, did not lead to
the attainment of our intended object; we must acknowledge that
the most suitable means to prevent the dissolution of the Monarchy
will be to promulgate for the above-mentioned eventuality a new
Law of Succession valid for the whole extent of the Monarchy
which shall repeal the provisions for the Succession in the Royal
Law, and to cause the same to be recognized in public law.

After the way to this object was paved, partly by the friendly
goodwill with which His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, in his
quality of head of the eldest line of the House of Holstein-Gottorp,
renounced in favour of His Highness Prince Christian of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and his male descendants
the hereditary claims on a part of our hereditary dominions, which His
Imperial Majesty assumed to belong in the above-mentioned
eventuality to the aforesaid line; and partly by the magnanimous readiness
with which our relatives standing nearest the Throne have, in order
to promote the attainment of this object, relinquished their right of
Succession to the same, we have determined, with the concurrence
of our well-beloved uncle His Royal Highness the Hereditary Prince
Frederik Ferdinand, in case the male line of Succession from King
Frederik III should become extinct, to abrogate all rights of
Succession according to the Royal Law, and, excluding the female line,
to call to the Succession to the Throne of all the countries subject
to our sceptre, our well-beloved kinsman His Highness Prince
Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his
male offspring of his wife, our well-beloved cousin Her Highness
Princess Louisa Wilhelmina Frederica Caroline Augusta Julia, of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, born Princess of Hesse.

Whereas, also, by the Treaty concluded on the 8th May, 1852,
and afterwards ratified, between His Majesty the Emperor of
Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, the (at that time) Prince
President of the French Republic and now Emperor of the French,
Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland; His Majesty the King of Prussia, His Majesty the
Emperor of Russia, and His Majesty the King of Sweden and
Norway; and by the adhesion to the same of most of the European
Powers, obtained in consequence of the invitation made to them by
the communication of Article IV of the Treaty, - we have succeeded
in procuring the acknowledg[e]ment of the indivisibility of the Danish
Monarchy as a perpetual maxim of European public law, and also
the recognition of the order of Succession established by us; and
whereas, finally, the United Danish Diet, in accordance with
paragraph 4 of the Fundamental Law of the Kingdom of Denmark, of
the 5th of June, 1849, has, by its decision of the 24th of June,
1853, assented, as far as it is concerned, to our proposal addressed
to it with respect to the Succession contemplated by us, we are
now enabled by the publication of a Law of Succession, applicable
to our whole Monarchy and valid for all its parts, to complete this
work which has so long been the object of our sovereign efforts.

We ordain and make known hereby the following:

Art. I. In case the male offspring descending from King Frederik III by the male line which, in accordance with the Royal
Law [in Danish] issued by the same King on the 14th of November, 1665, has
a right of Succession to the Danish Throne, should by God's inscrutable will become extinct, all rights of Succession, according to Articles XXVII to XL of the above-mentioned Royal Law, shall be abrogated, and only male from male, with the exclusion of females, shall have a right of Succession over the countries united under our sceptre. The right of Succession to the Throne shall then pass in all these countries to our well-beloved kinsman, His Highness Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, to whom we from this time have granted the title of Prince of Denmark, and to his male offspring by his Consort our well-beloved cousin Her Highness Princess Louisa Wilhelmina Frederica Caroline Augusta Julia of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, now Princess of Denmark, born Princess of Hesse.

Art. II. In this offspring male after male and male from male, begot
in lawful wedlock, the Crown shall descend according to the right
of primogeniture and lineal agnatic Succession.

Art. III. In case (which God forbid) imminent danger should arise
that the Princely male line called in this manner to the Succession
to the Throne should become extinct, our successor on the Danish
Throne reigning at the time shall be bound to provide for the
further settlement of the Succession to the Throne by means which
shall best secure the independence and integrity of the Monarchy,
together with the rights of the Crown, and which shall obtain an
European recognition of such settlement in conformity with Article
II of the above-mentioned Treaty, concluded at London on the 8th
of May, 1852.

This law respecting the Succession to the Throne for the whole
Danish Monarchy, which we have had drawn up in the Danish and
German languages and paraphé by our well-beloved uncle His Royal
Highness the Hereditary Prince Frederik Ferdinand, and by all
the Superior members of our Privy Council of State, we have hereby
promulgated and completed. And it is our will that the original
shall be deposited for preservation in our secret archives.

After which, all and every one have to conform themselves
submissively.

Given at the Palace of the Hermitage, the 31st July, 1853,
under the hand and seal of the King.